1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to chat room systems.
2. Background of the Invention
With the increasing use of digital subscriber lines (DSL), satellite and cable modems, dial-up modems, and the 802.11(a), (b), and (g) “wi-fi” devices, Internet access via “web pages” found on the World Wide Web, or the “web” has been constantly increasing. The speed of data transmission is such that rapid text, audio, and video communications are now possible.
One popular communication application supported by the Internet and available on the web is the “chat room”. A chat room is basically an electronic bulletin board where “posts” or messages for anyone accessing or “in” the chat room are communicated substantially in real time. Thus, in a chat room, participants interested in a particular topic (often reflected in the name of the chat room) can electronically “chat” with other users.
Current chat room audio systems are based on a single channel with a speakerphone-like model. People are intelligible to others just if one person at a time is speaking. This is unlike a real room where multiple people can be speaking simultaneously and still be understood. There are a couple of reasons for this and resulting disadvantages and problems. First, current telephone technology provides just a single channel. However, it is well known that by using binaural (i.e., utilizing both ears) audio, up to a 13 dB increase in effective signal-to-noise may be obtained through human perceptual abilities such as the “Cocktail Party Effect”. At a cocktail party, people with normal hearing can use both their ears and brain to selectively attend to and participate in multiple simultaneous conversations. In contrast, when multiple speakers are speaking over a single audio channel, the result is usually completely unintelligible (i.e., unless one speaker is much louder than the others).
Second, conference phones often resort to half-duplex modes to reduce echoes. This can make taking turns in conversations awkward if participants from multiple locations start speaking at about the same time.